hurrengoa
simonides de murchante    When Ernesto Murillo chose the pseudonym Simonides of Murchante, he must have had Simonides of Amorgos in mind. Simonides of Amorgos went down in history as the founder of satire. We can’t think of a more appropriate nickname for the creator of TMEO. We are who we are (grown-up people of great value, just in case you had any doubts) because we grew up reading comics. For our generation, Napartheid and TMEO were our Quosque Tandem and Ernesto Murillo and the like our Oteiza. Our lichen and moss. Our invisible, indispensable roots and stimulators.
We enjoyed his comics. We found out about his painting later on. Free work which was created without paying attention to fashion or market forces. Images which build bridges between surrealism and irony. Narrators of the small details we see and forget every day. Sharp political and social observations disguised as naif. We could say that we see Magritte in Simonides, but that wouldn’t be exact. We discovered Simonides before we found Magritte, so we see Simonides in Magritte.
Ernesto Murillo took his name from Simonides of Amorgos, the founder of satire, but when you look at his painting you see similarity with the second Simonides in history, Simonides of Ceos. In fact, the inventor of mnemonics said that “poetry is speaking painting, and painting is mute poetry”, and in that way brilliantly described Murillo’s work 2,500 years ago. Once in a while we dare to ask him to do a comic and he does. We’ve said that there are two Simonides, but there are actually three. Similar to the previous two, Simonides of Murchante was born in 1952 AD: poet, thinker and artist. A classic.